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January 21, 2008

Do You Blog Differently?

This time of year a lot of people post about "Why I Blog" and the such. I blog because it's a way to communicate to folks that I really want to email, but just don't. I blog to keep people updated on Abby's world. I blog to get feedback from folks on how they are doing. I blog about my kidneys as a way to 1 - inform and 2 - remember. Let's face it, I've been on enough drugs that it's hard to keep them straight. I've had surgeries that I can hardly remember, and hopefully this is the early stages of my disease and I have a lot more pain and annoyance to look forward to. (Honestly! No drugs means less life. It's annoying, but if it keeps me around, I'm okay with it.)

I find myself commenting on blogs a lot more recently. That's fun too.

But, and there's always a but.... I find myself wanting to blog about things that I can not. My parents read my blog. My mother-in-law reads my blog. My co-workers read my blog. Not that I'm a fan of surprises, but if I want to tell people that I've cut off my foot, I would probably tell certain people first, and in the right time. (For the record, my foot is fine, but I didn't want to use a real example, that would be bad.)

I found a friends blog online this week and told her that I did. She's the intern at our church, and I wanted to see if it was okay with her if I read it, or if she intended to be more anonymous locally. (For the record, she was cool with it.)

I know of many pastors around here that blog. Some do it very overtly, encouraging their congregation to read and react. One occasionally posts early versions of his sermon for feedback prior to presenting. One was anonymous to most people, but when she realized that the folks that knew her moniker, she was concerned that her head of staff would find out and be hurt. Nothing to offend her, just some boundaries that might need to be set.

When I don't blog, it's typically because the things going on are things that would effect me negatively either in the family or work. Do I have bad days at work? Hellstotheyes. We installed a new server and it's driven me nuts a few times. I don't blog about it because at the office I have the "hey, we got something new, we've got to work the kinks out" face to keep on. Truth: it sucks. (Sure hope the office isn't reading this week!)

There are both exciting and trying things in my life that I can't blog about yet, but really want to.

So - do you blog differently because you know who is reading? Do you find yourself keeping things closer or being more daring? Do you know that someone is reading, and blog anyway?

5 comments:

Yes, yes and yes. Who knew that blogging would get so complicated? Sometimes I think about scrapping it all and starting over or having an alternative anonymous blog but I would really have to have some free time for that.

such boundary issues are part of why i dont blog. but i enjoy other peoples blogs, and understand the various limits they set on what goes into them. i'm happy to have a way to keep up with friends' lives :P

Absolutely. Almost every day I find there are things I would like to blog about that I just can't because of the people reading. I find I'm using it more for news than anything else (thus my high frequency of once a month), just like you. It's a way of not feeling guilty for never emailing anyone. LOL.

But I have considering starting a truly anonymous blog - but then what if I wanted someone to read one of the posts? So right now I stick to journaling. :)